The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

XII DECORATIVE ART 267
at our behest he carved on some wooden models of arms
and legs the tatu designs of these people, but he was
unable to supply any information of the names or significance
of the designs. The men of the tribe apparently
were not tatued, and the designs reproduced on PL 141,
Figs. 5, 6, are those of the women. The essential features
of the designs are spirals and portions of intersecting circles ;
the intersecting circles are frequently to be met with in the
decorative art of Kenyahs, e.g. on the back of sword-handles,
round the top of posts, on carved bamboos, etc., and in these
cases the design is supposed to be a representation of the
open fruit of a species of mango, Mangifera sp. It is not
improbable that the design had the same significance
amongst the Long Utan, for we have met with one or
two representations of the same fruit amongst other
Klemantan tribes.
(/) Biajau.— The Dutch author C. den Hamer [5,
p. 451] includes under this heading the tribes living in the
districts watered by the rivers Murung, Kahayan, Katingan,
and Mentaja of South-west Borneo. Under this very
elastic heading he would include the Ot-Danum, Siang,
and Ulu Ajar of Nieuwenhuis, but we treat of these in the
next section. The ethnology of the Barito, Kahayan, and
Katingan river-basins sadly needs further investigation ;
nothing of importance has been published on this region
since the appearance of Schwaner's book on Borneo more
than fifty years ago. We know really very little of the
distribution or constitution of the tribes dwelling in these
districts, and Schwaner's account of their tatu is very
meagre. Such as it is, it is given here, extracted from
Ling Roth's Translation of Schwaners Ethnographical
Notes [7, pp. cxci. cxciv.] : The men of Pulu Petak, the
right-hand lower branch of the Barito or Banjermasin
river, tatu the upper part of the body, the arms and calves
of legs, with elegant interlacing designs and scrolls. The
people of the Murung river are said to be most beautifully
tatued, both men and women ; this river is really the
upper part of the Barito, and according to Hamer is
inhabited by the Biajau {vide postea), who appear to be
distinct from the Ngaju of Schwaner, inhabiting the lower
courses of the [ Barito and Kapuas rivers. The men of
the lower left-hand branch of the Barito and of the midcourse
of that river are often not tatued at all, but such
tatu as was extant in 1850 was highly significant according